Originally Posted by
sltlyamusd
I wonder why they are using A332 and not the 787-9 with individual suites up front? At a guess, Boeing deliveries are too backed up and they figure they wont have enough airframes delivered by then?
Yeah, with only two 789s, I don’t see how they could operate the SEA long hauls with them. If and when more 789s get delivered, it’s trivial to slot them in to SEA-Asia on virtually no notice. Also, the CEO said on the podcast that they’ll use A330s on SEA-ANC in the summer (no surprise), presumably rotating birds that also fly to/from HNL and Asia. So again, having 330s be the main wide body rotating through SEA makes sense as long as the 789 fleet is so small.
Originally Posted by
seat38a
The 2 cities make sense. Hawaiian already flies to those not like they are starting from scratch.
Yup. Again on the podcast, the CEO said explicitly that they can do NRT and ICN very easily on short notice because they have the existing flights, infrastructure, point of sale, etc. he said they’ll do more Asia from SEA but the startup cost is higher so it will have to wait until 2026. Totally unsurprising and sensible.
Originally Posted by
TravellingChris
The new flights are interesting, though I'm doubtful how sustainable they are. Delta and ANA already fly SEA-HND, JAL does SEA-NRT. Korean and Asiana both fly SEA-ICN, as does Delta.
AS has surprised many with their ability to hold off DL and in fact grow their SEA hub by a lot in the face of that competition, and that’s without having a long haul network. I think there’s good reason to expect them to be successful. And as the battle for SEA over the last decade has made clear, “success” doesn’t necessarily mean driving DL out of the market.
Originally Posted by
WrightHI
Yes. Ben said on the Air Show podcast that anything touching HI will be HA branded, and they can’t optimize aircraft utilization with separate fleets for HI and everywhere else, so those HA-branded planes are going to have to also be AS-branded planes sometimes.
Yeah. And he said they’re expecting to get an extra 7 aircraft worth of utilization out of the HA fleet due to efficiencies and being able to flow planes between Hawaii and intro-mainland routes; can’t do that if a given plane is limited to HI flying.
Originally Posted by
BA850
Without wishing to trigger a political discussion, AS may find a more sympathetic ear in the incoming administration.
The AA/BA/IB/AY/EI joint venture is heavily tilted towards the Atlantic, so there’s also a strong argument to be made that adding Alaska on the Pacific side would be complementary rather than monopolistic.
The AA/IAG/AY joint venture isn’t just tilted toward the Atlantic; it’s limited to the Atlantic. If they have overlapping routes elsewhere, they compete. So Asia flying on AS could not be part of that joint venture.
Originally Posted by
whlinder
Hawaiian already failed at securing Antitrust Immunity for a JV with JAL between Asia and Hawaii. That was decided during the first Trump administration. I think AS will try for that eventually but AS has so many other things to do right now I have to assume it will be a couple of years.
I could see an argument for joining the AA/JL joint venture on mainland-Asia routes only while being forced to compete on HI-Asia routes since there’s perhaps less competition. And honestly I think AA would be very open to it. They’re so desperate for a decent Asia hub that they tried using SEA with AS feed, but that’s always a big challenge (which is why DL built their own SEA hub in the first place). If AA can get in on some of AS’s revenue to Asia, I think that would be appealing for them. And for AS getting access to JL’s feed with joint venture advantages seems appealing.